EPL: Louis van Gaal slams Manchester United's trip to the US

Louis van Gaal thinks Manchester United are putting his chances of success in jeopardy by dragging the first-team squad across the United States on their pre-season tour

Manchester: Louis van Gaal thinks Manchester United are putting his chances of success in jeopardy by dragging the first-team squad across the United States on their pre-season tour.

Louis van Gaal

United start their pre-season campaign in the early hours of the morning today when they face the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California.

It will be the first game of a two-and-a-half-week long tour that could see United travel almost 13,500 miles if they reach the final of the International Champions Cup — the pre-season tournament which includes some of the best clubs in Europe.

In between the matches, the players have to appear at sponsor events while they are also duty-bound to conduct interviews for the club's in-house TV channel.

The need to adaptIt all seems too much for Van Gaal, who made his annoyance clear at his first pre-match press conference in the US.

When asked whether United's commercial commitments were impinging on football matters, Van Gaal said: "More or less, yes because we have to prepare the season and when you have a lot of commercial activities also for the players, and you have to travel distances, you have to fly a lot, you have also jet lag, and that is not very positive for a good preparation.

"But the tour was already arranged so I have to adapt and I shall adapt."